Abnormal

(previously published at Shepherd of the Valley Lutheran Church, West Des Moines, Iowa)

Ezekiel 36:26 “And I [the Lord] will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.”

You’ve all heard of Frankenstein, right? My favorite version of the story comes from the movie “Young Frankenstein.” Ok, so it’s not the most true to the story, but it’s funny. I always crack up when Gene Wilder asks “Igor” where he got the brain for his creation. It came from a jar that was marked “Abby Normal.” This brain caused all sorts of crazy things to happen for the monster, including singing and dancing. The brain was not normal, it was abnormal.

According to the world, you and I are “Ab Normal.” Ezekiel was proclaiming the word of God and He was saying the same thing. The world considered the Hebrews normal at this point. But it was because they had gone against everything the Lord had commanded and blended into the world around them. They worshipped the world’s idols and followed their customs and gone as far as to use the Lord’s name profanely. They were a lost cause, but normal according to the world.

So the Lord said that He wasn’t going to stand for it anymore. He wasn’t going to allow His people to become permanent fixtures of the world. He had every right to completely wipe them off the face of the planet, to scrap the project as it were. But that’s not what He does. He promises to deliver His people from their sin. Rather than let them die in it, He brings them out of it. He promises to make them “Ab Normal.” He’s going to go all Dr. Frankenstein on them and remove the old, dead organs and give them new ones. They won’t be normal any more. That stony heart, gone! In its place, a replacement heart from God Himself.

Now, it is we who are abnormal. A king born in a stable was abnormal. A man claiming to be God was abnormal. An innocent man dying for the sins of the world was abnormal. A dead man rising again and entering rooms despite locked doors was abnormal. It is because of what Jesus did that we are made abnormal. God shows us mercy when what we deserve is death. That is abnormal. None of this makes sense to a “normal” world. The children of God no longer fit in. We do not have hearts of stone, but hearts of flesh. We do not have worldly spirits, but are filled with the Holy Spirit. We are cleansed from sin and given new life.

When someone says to you, which I have heard all my life, “you’re really weird,” our response is along the lines of “thank you, but I prefer abnormal.” Being different is fantastic. Being abnormal is tremendous. And one day, when Jesus calls me home, I’ll be perfectly abnormal.

Father, forgive us for sometimes wishing we were normal. There are days when it would be easier to blend in. But you graciously rescued us from a life of normalcy. You replaced the old parts with new life. You forgave us when you could have squashed us. Thank you for you mercy and for making us abnormal. Through your Holy Spirit, may we always stick out like sore thumbs for everyone to see. In Jesus’ name, amen.